See main article: San Giorgio-class amphibious transport dock. The San Giorgio class of the Italian Navy, also known as the Santi class (since the three units that compose it have the names of three saints), consists of three amphibious warships of the amphibious transport dock type: the San Giorgio, the and lastly, with a slightly different design, the, specialized in landing operations that replaced the Grado and Caorle which were disarmed at the end of the 1980s. They are included in the Projection Force from the Sea, the amphibious component of the Italian Armed Forces.
San Giorgio was laid down on 27 May 1985 and launched on 21 February 1987 by Fincantieri at Riva Trigoso. She was commissioned on 13 February 1988.
Starting from December 1992 the San Giorgio, San Marco and the men of the San Marco Battalion took part in Somalia in the Ibis I and Ibis II missions with the 24th Naval Group together with, and and with the 25th Naval Group together with the, the and .
In mid-2006, the Italian Navy was one of the first to intervene in the Lebanon War.[1] Participating in Operation Mimosa '06 and subsequently in Operation Leonte with the San Giusto, San Marco and San Giorgio in the front row together with, and the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi. The ships landed in the port of Beirut, under the control of the 1st San Marco Regiment, tons of material intended for the population, field kitchens, ambulances, generators for the production of electricity, pneumatic tents, tons of medicines and tons of food. food intended for the non-combatant civilian population made available by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Protection, the Italian Red Cross and the United Nations World Food Program.
In December 2014, she took part in the rescue operations of the, playing a decisive role in the success of the rescue operation.
On 3 August 2016, in addition to fighting smugglers and human traffickers, they have received two additional tasks: the training of the Libyan Coast Guard, the Libyan Navy and the control of the arms embargo towards Libya in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Italy will play a decisive role, since the training will be under Italian guidance and will take place onboard San Giorgio, where the first stages of the training of the Libyan Navy will take place already in September.[2]
Rear Admiral Frumento replaced his Greek counterpart Theodoros Mikropoulos who had been in command since October 19, 2020. He operated aboard the San Giorgio which became the new flagship.[3]